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Category: Crochet

This is a versatile wrap that can be cozy and casual or a little sophisticated and stylish without being fussy or frilly. The open stitch pattern creates a monochromatic striped look and keeps it from being overly heavy or bulky. The light sport weight yarn used here (see previous post) is soft, a great neutral color (it seems to coordinate with any other color) as well as being machine washable and dryable. The finished wrap is lightweight and can be worn three different ways making it flexible enough to wear it for a casual autumn walk in the leaves, a springtime brunch, a summer night out or even an extra snuggly winter layer to stay warm at home or in the office.

The pattern is simple, so someone who is at a beginner level in crochet can do it. Also, after the chain and foundation row, it just repeats continuously to create a long rectangle so you can work on it whenever or wherever even if you don’t have access to the pattern. You will get into a groove and be amazed at how fast you will whip it up. It is easy to work on while watching TV or chatting with your crochet buddies. Add something special to your wardrobe or make a great gift for a friend or relative. Let’s get started!

Feel free to sell items you make with this pattern and please include a link to this page. I appreciate you spreading the word and sharing the love!

Materials

Sport weight yarn

US H/ 5 MM Crochet Hook

US J/ 6 MM Crochet Hook (to make the starting chain with a looser tension)

Coordinating thread for sewing on buttons

Buttons (I used two 7/8” buttons)

Special Stitch

2 DC Cluster stitch: Yarn Over (YO) insert hook in chain 1 space from previous row, YO and pull through two loops (2 loops remain on the hook), YO insert hook in the same chain 1 space YO and pull through two loops on the hook again (3 loops remain), YO and pull through all three remaining loops on the hook.

Chain 78 (I use a hook two sizes larger for my chain so the starting edge will not be tighter than the rest of the piece – for the chain here I used a US J/ 6 MM hook) The chain length will be the length of the wrap from the shoulder to the waist. The model here is 5’7”. Adjust the starting chain based on your desired length or the height of the person who will wear it. The starting chain needs to be a multiple of 2.

Row 1: Switch to US H/ 5 MM hook and DC in the third chain from the hook, chain 1 and skip one chain and DC in the next. Continue across the starting chain with a *DC, chain 1, skip one of the starting chains* and repeat until one chain remains. Place a DC in the last chain.

Row 2: Chain 3, turn and place a cluster stitch in the first chain 1 space then chain 1, *cluster stitch in the next chain 1 space, chain 1*. Repeat across and place one DC in the single DC from the previous row.

Row 3: Chain 2, turn and DC in the first chain 1 space, chain 1, *DC in the next chain 1 space from the previous row, chain 1*, repeat until the last chain 1 space. Place two DC in the last Ch 1 space.

Repeat Row 2 then Row 3 until you have reached your desired length. There are 111 rows in the wrap shown here.

Once you have reached your desired length, chain 1 and single crochet (SC) in every stitch or chain on the short edge, place 2 SC in the corner. On the long edge place 2 SC at the end of every row (you will be working around a chain or a DC and it will alternate). Repeat until you have completed all four sides of the wrap.

Chain 1 and SC in every stitch.

When you finish this step you will have two rows of SC edging around the entire wrap. You could stop here, weave in your ends, and use it as a large scarf style wrap. If you continue and add buttons you’ll get the added versatility of different ways to wear this multipurpose accessory.

At this point you will complete the wrap by only working along one of the long edges and this will be the top collar edge of the wrap where you will place the buttons and button holes.

This is how I hold the wrap to determine where to place the buttons as detailed here. –>

Before the next step you need to choose where to place the buttons and holes. Fold the wrap in half. I placed that folded edge on my shoulder and held the wrap together at a comfortable spot under my arm where it seemed like a good spot for the first button to be if I were wearing it on only one shoulder. For me this was about 5 inches below my underarm. The same spot where the bottom edge of my bra sits. When I wear the buttons on my shoulder this placement of the button holes adds a flattering drape to the collar edge. There is a V-shaped collar with buttons worn in front. Mark this meeting point in the two spots along the edge. Use stitch markers or bobby pins. One marker indicates where you want to sew on the button, the other is where you will make the button hole. For me this spot was 14 inches from the folded edge for the first button and 17 inches from the fold for the second one. My buttons are 7/8” and skipping two chains to create the button hole was a good size. If your buttons are smaller or larger you will have to adjust the size of the button hole you create. You could customize the wrap by using more or different size buttons.

Chain 1 SC in every stitch until you reach your stitch markers, *chain 2 and skip two stitches where you will be placing your button hole*, SC until you reach the second stitch marker and repeat between the asterisks(*). Finish the row by SC in every stitch.

Chain 1, turn, SC in every SC, place two SC in the chain spaces for each of the button holes.

Chain 1, turn, SC in each stitch along the top and continue around the entire piece. This will add a finished edge on the ends of the additional rows added to the top. Fasten off, weave in ends and sew on your buttons.

Enjoy your new wrap!

Special thanks to my good friend and crochet buddy, Andrea Tasevski of morganstreetdesigns.com, who tested the pattern for me. I am quite amazed by how fast she can whip these things up!

If you have any questions or need clarification please leave a comment below. I would love to see your finished project too.

This is a fast and easy blanket to crochet. So you decide to make it. Then you wonder “How much yarn do I need?” That question could be the most complicated thing about making this blanket! Thankfully we can simplify things by looking at this WIP (work in progress) for a reference of how big the project will be with one ball of this incredibly soft and squishy, super bulky (6 gauge) weight yarn called Bernat Blanket yarn.

Normally figuring out how much yarn to buy for any project depends on MANY variables. Yarn thickness, hook size, stitch pattern, finished project size and more are all factors. So when I decided to crochet a blanket with this yarn for the first time I realized… I had no clue! Would 2 balls be enough? Or do I need 10? Of course, sometimes you just want to know how much money you are going to spend on the project before you get started. Hopefully this will be helpful.

This yarn is 100% polyester and reminds me of a strand fleece material. It is also machine washable and dryable with delicate and low heat settings recommended.

The beginning of this blanket is shown on a twin size mattress. It measures 50 inches in width and 12 inches in height for 12 rows. (I made it less than half way on row 13 so it is not counted in the height.) In order to make a blanket that is 6 foot tall (my goal) you will need 6 balls. This is for the 10.5 oz / 300 g size skein that is approximately 258 yards or 234 m. It is pretty awesome that the math is so simple on this!

Note: the Bernat Baby Blanket yarn is the same weight, but the there is only about 72 yards in a ball, so if you would like to use a color that is only available in the Baby Blanket yarn you will need 3 times as many skeins. As described above that would be 18 balls of Bernat Baby Blanket yarn.

This would be a great project for anyone – even a crochet beginner who is just learning. It will make an impressive completed project to share too. Give it as a gift or snuggle up in it yourself. It is pretty irresistible! You can easily work on it while you watch TV because it is repetitive and works up quite fast with a large hook (9.0 MM/US M-13 hook) and this super bulky yarn. After a while it can even keep you warm as you work! 🙂 It is so simple there is no pattern needed! If you want to make one like this, the details are below.

Gauge:
The dimensions I give to approximate yarn needs are based on 7 stitches and 4 rows equaling 4” x 4”

Method: (Too simple to be called a pattern in US Crochet terms)

Chain 88

Turn. Begin in the third chain from the hook double crochet (DC) across.

Chain 2 counts as first DC.

Warning! Do not place a stitch in the first stitch from the previous row or your edges will not be straight. Can you guess how I know? How many rows do you think I had to pull out to fix this? Now you won’t need to!

DC in the remaining stitches working in the back loop only. Working in the back loop creates the line detail between rows. If you prefer, you can work in both loops for a more traditional DC look instead. See the photos for clarification of where to place your stitch if you want to work in the back loop and a visual comparison so you can see the difference between these two different ways of working this blanket with this yarn.

You will work this blanket horizontally, so continue until you reach your desired length.
Right now I am planning to also add a single crochet border around the entire blanket to finish it.
Hopefully this will be a warm, cozy, usable keepsake gift for my son when it is done. It has a current, chunky, subtle boyish (or manly) style. It is also super soft! The decision I have to make now is whether I should change colors so the finished blanket has thick stripes or keep it monochromatic. To make stripes I will pull out the partial row and start a new color with a new row. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Make the lovable, fuzzy nemesis-turned-friend from Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer come alive with a handmade crochet hat!
The abominable snowman is a favorite in our house. In fact, he adorns the top of our Christmas tree! I have been searching for a more “appropriate” star or angel for years, but I haven’t found something I really like yet… Now my boys and husband are so accustomed to having the abominable snow monster at the top I will have a hard time changing the tradition when I do find a more conventional tree topper.

When I found this pattern, my husband fell in love. We had found his funny, quirky hat for snow blowing! There hasn’t been any snow yet here this year, but I’m guessing our kids and all the kids in the neighborhood will get a laugh while he is out working!

This is a free crochet pattern available by PDF download on Ravelry. It was created and shared by Rachel Solberg Designs. (Thank you, Rachel!) Sizes included are 6 months to adult. The photo looks different, but the pattern gives details about using fun fur yarn held together with worsted weight yarn to give it the wild, fuzzy look you see here.

The yarn used in this project is white Red Heart Super Saver yarn held together with eyelash style Lion Brand Fun Fur yarn to make this warm, furry and fuzzy looking hat. I found my Fun Fur at JoAnn’s and I needed more than one 64 yard skein for this adult size hat. I think one skein would be enough for child-sized hats. It seemed that the Fun Fur yarn would be difficult to work with, but it wasn’t! It was surprisingly easy. The fun fur yarn isn’t thick enough to use by itself so that is why I held it together with worsted weight white acrylic yarn. I tried to lighten up my tension a bit to not get the hook tangled up too much. It is challenging to pull out if you need to rework anything, but not impossible. Light tugging worked to pull out stitches without damaging the yarn… No need to ask how I know! Sewing the pieces on got a little hairy (ha!). It was easy to fix though by pulling the white fur back out of the blue areas. The blue was from a scrap ball of acrylic yarn that I inherited, so I don’t have any information to share about that. The color looks like faded or de-saturated light blue. I keep thinking of it as a “country blue.”

Check back, I plan to add a photo with the hat “in action” when we have enough snow to haul out the snow blower, but I am not in any hurry for that to happen!

Please share your photos or questions in the comments if you make these hats too. These would make great gifts and I have heard they also sell well at craft fairs. Thank you for visiting and sharing this post!

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Now slowly lower your hand as I tell you I wasn’t trying to pump my little Pre-K sweet pea and his classmates full of sugar to make them emotional time bombs at pick-up time. Actually these homemade cupcakes are made out of crochet!

You can find the adorable free, easy-to-follow pattern and tutorial to customize the crochet to fit the size of your container from GoodKnits here. There are even variations, but I like how the “frosting” really seems to swirl and pile up here. The crocheted pieces are hot glued to a recyclable food container, so you can even use it as a gift box or trinket box. I used pure acetone to remove the screen printed labels because it bothered me that you could see the writing from the inside of the cupcake. After I had them completed, I realized Chinese food soup containers would have been a perfect size and would have saved me a step. Sometimes the timing of my ideas could use some refining! At least it makes for a good tip for you.

These were made as a gift for a teacher who loves to bake with a cupcake specialty. It would also be a fun little birthday gift box. Happy crocheting.

Your questions and thoughts are welcomed! Please leave a comment below. To receive email updates with tips and tutorials, please sign up here:

Let me start by saying I bought this yarn myself (actually this is the third super-huge skein) and I am not being compensated in any way to write this.

I just use this yarn ALL THE TIME and wanted to share this awesome find with you! I found it in the baby yarn section, so if you aren’t specifically working on a baby project – you may not discover it. Now let me share why you should look for it.

The Bernat Baby Sport yarn is soft, lightweight and this “Baby Taupe” color is a very versatile neutral for babies and adults. It is great to make baby accessories and is valuable to have on hand for a variety of projects when inspiration strikes!

It is sold in an “economical big ball” size weighing in at 350g / 12.3 oz, 1148 meters / 1256 yards. That amount of yarn will make many small projects (hats, booties, baby toys, gift card holders, infinity scarves, mittens, fingerless mitts) or even an entire larger project. For example, I completed a baby blanket with one skein… That is how I found – and fell in love with – this yarn.

It is also easy to care for because it is machine wash and dryable, 100% acrylic. It works very well to make baby accessories for expecting moms, especially when the gender will be a surprise. It is a light-colored neutral color that won’t stain as easily as white or cream colors and it will still coordinate with most nursery color schemes. It’s also a nice for something a little different from the more common syrupy-sweet pastels. It still looks great with more traditional baby pink, blue and yellow too.

As a sport weight (3 gauge) the strand is thinner than more common worsted weight (4). The weight of this yarn is very similar to Caron Simply Soft yarns, but it does not have the shiny sheen. If you want to work a pattern intended for that yarn with more of a matte-looking yarn – this is it. However if you are working with a pattern that calls for worsted weight yarn, it will turn out smaller with this yarn. You could use that to your advantage if (for example) you want to make a hat smaller than the pattern. Just use this yarn and a smaller hook. It will probably take some experimenting to get the sizing exactly as you want too.

Another advantage is that with fabrics made with this yarn will be lighter and will have more motion, flow or a softer drape compared with worsted weight. This is great for lacey patterns or wraps and light scarves yet the material and color give it a casual touch.

The fabric you see in the background is a preview of a lightweight wrap for a woman that can be worn three ways. Also since this color is so versatile it can easily be worn in the spring, on cool summer nights or even in the fall… And yes, it can be made with one skein! I will be sharing a free, easy crochet pattern for it soon. While you wait, go out and get yourself some of this yarn. The suggested retail price is $9.99, so with one of those 40% off coupons. How can you go wrong? Update: The wrap pattern is now available here.

Leave a comment below to show and tell what you are making with this yarn. To receive email updates with tips, tutorials and other freebies as they are released, please sign up here!